System and method for image based viewing and ordering

ABSTRACT

Various aspects and embodiments are directed to image based viewing and/or ordering food items. According to some embodiments, an ordering system for managing image based menus includes a suite of data management applications for providers and/or deliverers (e.g., businesses in the restaurant or food and beverage industry, delivery service providers, etc.). These providers can subscribe to the system in order to access the functionality provided by image based displays including ordering and reservation capabilities provided. In some embodiments, the suite of data management applications can be configured to enable subscribers to access database-driven, market-specific product information, and use that information, for example, to tailor displays on online food and beverage ordering/viewing systems. Further each participant can specify the terms/restrictions associated with their participation and the system can optimize viewing of food and beverage items, reservations, and deliveries and manage pricing and payment of any order accordingly.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/091,080 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR IMAGE BASED VIEWING AND ORDERING,” filed Dec. 12, 2014, and U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/118,358 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR OPTIMIZING MENU GENERATION AND DISPLAY,” filed Feb. 19, 2015, eachof which applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND

Various systems and options exist to facilitate ordering and delivery offood to consumers. The “take-out” market represents significant marketshare of food sales. However options are limited to conventional text orphone ordering systems (e.g., GRUBHUB) or other reservation styledsystems (e.g., OPENTABLE).

SUMMARY

It is realized that improvements over conventional food service systemsand methodologies are needed. In particular, it is appreciated that itwould be beneficial to have a system that provides a complete electronicor online photo menu or directory of any food service provider (e.g.,restaurants, take-out, dine-in, food cart, mobile food provider, nichemarkets, etc.), to deliver customers easy and comprehensive views of anyfood offering. These electronic or online photo menus should provideactual images of the food being offered (e.g., entrées, beverages,desserts, a-la-cart offerings, mobile food options, pre-packagedselections, custom offerings, on-demand offerings, etc.) or the locationproviding the food services. According to some embodiments, the imagesof the food items being offered are collected from a plurality of foodservice providers into image based menus.

According to some embodiments, the terms “image based menu” and “visualmenu” are used in this application to connote the inclusion of an imageof a food or beverage item (e.g., an entrée, an available beverage, adessert, etc.) into a display of food or beverages that can be searchedor viewed by a customer. In other embodiments, “image based menus” or“visual menus” include no text displays of images of the food orbeverage, where the images are taken by a respective provider, and inyet others, “image based menus” or “visual menus” can also includeimages of the food or beverage taken by patrons of the provider. Infurther examples, individual images in no text displays can be linked toadditional information including text information regarding, forexample, allergen information, price, location, delivery options, etc.

According to further embodiments, the system can generate image basedmenus representative of the food offering being made available by aprovider. In some embodiments, representative of the food offering isused to describe image based menus that include all offering, allcurrently available offerings, substantially all of the provider'sofferings, and substantially all of the provider's currently availableofferings. In yet other embodiments, representative of the foodofferings can include any one of or more of: seventy percent or more ofthe provider's offerings, seventy five percent or more of the provider'sofferings, eighty percent or more of the provider's offerings, eightyfive percent or more of the provider's offerings, ninety percent or moreof the provider's offerings, or ninety five percent or more of theprovider's offerings.

According to some aspects, image based menus enable customers to viewand/or search through dynamically generated food options and/or currentor temporally limited displays of food options being provided. Inessence, dynamically generated menus are created across any number ofproviders or locations and organized to provide a comprehensive andeasily appreciated view of the multitudes of food options available. Infurther embodiments, the image based menus are arranged responsive toany input of a preference (e.g., a food or beverage style, food orbeverage type, price, location, delivery option, delivery time, rating,connections to a provider, distance to a provider, etc.) by thecustomer, prompting the system to dynamically generate image based menustailored to the customer.

Various aspects and embodiments relate to the realization that existentavenues for access to food and beverage choices are inadequate incommunicating choices. Various embodiments implement methods and systemsand associated hardware to provide users current or real timeinformation in a form that presents currently available choices in anintelligible manner. Such hardware may include cameras, phones with suchcameras and even light boxes to provide current or real time and updatedpictorial representations of offerings. Those images will then be madeavailable in a database with fully functional software to allow searchesbased upon individual choices whether it be, for example, meat or dairy,or more refined by dairy or gluten free and the like. Important in someexamples, the image from one provider is available but also equivalentimages from other competing locations to offer choices to the user basedon the image of the food itself and any accompanying informationincluding price, calorie count, and recommendations by professional oramateur users, etc. Unlike other offerings, the information ismaintained to be current and preferably allow a user to order.

While images from amateur or other third party users may be availablefor comparison in some embodiments, the database provides consistency inits images to allow easy recognition and differentiation of suchoffering. Prior such databases provide only written description of eachoffering with perhaps a few relevant images which made searching andcomparison difficult and frustrating at best. The fully functional andsearchable database in the preferred embodiments herein allowdetermination of the most suitable offering quickly and with fullknowledge of what will actually be provided and then delivered. Whilethis database can be made available on any computer or hardware device,the database can be implemented on portable systems like a PDA, a mobilephone, a smart phone, or a tablet, etc. Such can be supplied within theprovider location to allow users to determine what may be suitable forconsumption for themselves, or even to allow ordering within thelocation as a take-out or eat-in situation. In some examples, it isexpected that the computer or PDA will be used to order offerings to aplace of work or an accommodation, preferably with suitably outfittedand screened delivery personnel. Software within each such device canaccommodate user interactions to score the offering once it arriveswithin the provider location or private place (e.g., delivery location)as well as to score the delivery service itself. In this manner therewill be provided timely feedback (or even instant such feedback) toallow the provider to alter its offerings in current or real time(meaning instantly or within a few hours or even a few days) and toadjust the manner of delivery or the individuals involved therewith. Forexample, an offering that is well received can be promoted via theoffering devices or via social media, and those less well received canbe removed from the database completely or amended to accommodate userdesires (perhaps providing more of the offering or reducing caloriecount and the like). In some embodiments, commentary on any offering canbe tracked by the system and communicated to the respective provider toadjust their offerings accordingly.

According to some embodiments, those delivery personnel who perform wellcan be provided more lucrative routes and offerings, while those who donot do well can be removed from the system. The scoring system canprovide for multiple manners of feedback not only on the offering andthe delivery but with specifics such as whether the offering providedwas appropriately presented, appeared as the image portrayed, tastedappropriately, arrived in a timely fashion, used appropriate containers,and how it compared to similar offerings from other providers vis-à-visprice range. Such a scoring system may determine how, if and whenofferings are presented to the user within the computer interface.

In further embodiments, delivery personnel can be judged and scored upontimeliness, appearance, cleanliness and other accommodating features.Since time for delivery is relevant to many users a provider will besimilarly judged and scored by the delivery personnel to ensure thatthey provide sufficient time to actually finish the delivery. Suchpersonnel may be privately hired by the provider or may be provided by athird party in association with this system.

According to at least some embodiments, the illustrative features aboveprovide for the first time a system that truly accommodates the needs ofbusy users who desire relevant information in an accessible format suchthat each user can determine what is important for themselves andthereby select more rapidly and with more certainly of success inchoice. Each provider can supply a parallel hard copy format of theirofferings to show users in a more traditional manner what is availablefrom or at that provider. A user will then be able to rapidly determinewhether such provider is suitable for their needs and requirements bycomparing such with the system on their computer, PDA or other device,or even with the provider's own device should it be set up for access toother providers. In this way each provider can coordinate offerings andmake recommendations as needed for users with specific needs so thatrelated providers can ensure higher overall user satisfaction and set astandard against which non users of such system cannot compare.

In yet other aspects, it is realized that image based menus and deliveryoptions can occur within a specific provider's space. For example, apatron can enter the restaurant of their choice, review an image basedmenu online, and order food for delivery to a location in the provider'sestablishment (e.g., to a table or to a location at a bar).

Further aspects and embodiments are directed to image based viewingand/or ordering systems and methods. The image based viewingfunctionality organizes images of the food, beverage, appetizer, sides,etc., to be ordered by a customer into sorted images of food results, inessence a visual menu organizing images of the food or beverage to beordered. In some examples, no text descriptions are provided for acustomer to understand what is being offered through the image baseddisplays. A customer may enter visual selections into the visual display(e.g., by clicking, touching, swiping, etc., an image of a foodoffering) and the selections are used to generate food or beverageselections or orders from any number of providers. According to someembodiments, a system for managing image based menus includes a suite ofdata management applications for providers (e.g., businesses in therestaurant or food and beverage industry). The providers can subscribeto the system in order to access the image based display, ordering, andreservation capabilities provided. In some embodiments, the suite ofdata management applications can be configured to enable subscribers toaccess database-driven, market-specific product information, and usethat information to tailor displays on online food or beverageordering/viewing systems.

Various embodiments provide a rich source for data and facilitateordering, reservation, and delivery of food or beverage services,thereby increasing restaurant or vendor sales and generating valuablebehavior information to aid in completing orders. Once a restaurant orvendor has subscribed to the system and input information on theirofferings, users can review image based menus including the provider'sfood or beverage options. In some embodiments, the system managesordering, payment, reservation, and optionally delivery to the user.

According to one aspect, a system for managing image based viewing offood or beverage items is provided. The system comprises at least oneprocessor operatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed byat least one processor, configured to: search descriptioncharacteristics associated with images of food or beverage items orrespective providers from a plurality of providers to return resultsbased on user input criteria, wherein the results are filtered images ofthe food or beverage items responsive to the user input criteria, adisplay engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured todisplay at least one user interface, and wherein the at least one userinterface is configured to accept user selection of at least one of theimages of the food or beverage items, and an image component configuredto manage a plurality of images of the food or beverage items generatedby respective ones of the plurality of providers.

According to one aspect, a system for managing image based ordering offood or beverage items is provided. The system comprises at least oneprocessor operatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed byat least one processor, configured to search description characteristicsassociated with images of food or beverage items or respective providersfrom a plurality of providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the results are filtered images of the food orbeverage items responsive to the user input criteria, a display engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to display at leastone user interface, and wherein the at least one user interface isconfigured to accept user selection of at least one of the images of themenu items; and a payment component configured to: manage paymentverification associated with the user, mange payment distributionbetween at least one of: one or more providers and one or more deliveryentities.

According to one aspect, a system for generating image based menus isprovided. The system comprises at least one processor operativelyconnected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at least oneprocessor, configured to: search description characteristics associatedwith images of food or beverage items or respective providers from aplurality of providers to return results based on user input criteria,wherein the results are filtered images of the food or beverage itemsresponsive to the user input criteria, and a display engine, executed bythe at least one processor, configured to: display at least one userinterface, wherein the at least one user interface is configured toaccept user selection of at least one of the images of the menu items,and generate the image based menu dynamically responsive to availableimages of the food or beverage items meeting display criteria defined onthe system or meeting display preferences associated with the user.

According to one aspect, a system for coordinating delivery of food orbeverage items from a plurality of providers is provided. The systemcomprises at least one processor operatively connected to a memory, adisplay engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured todisplay at least one user interface, wherein the user interface isconfigured to accept user selection of a plurality of the images of foodor beverage items associated with a plurality of providers, and anordering engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to:request the food or beverage items associated with the plurality ofimages from one or more respective providers associated with anyselected image, and coordinate delivery of the food or beverage itemsfrom a plurality of providers and one or more delivery providers.

According to one aspect, a system for managing image based viewing orordering is provided. The system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor of the at least one server, configured to: organize imagesof vendors or menu options from a plurality of providers, and searchdescription characteristics associated with the images of the vendor ormenu options from the plurality of providers to return results based onuser input criteria, wherein the results are filtered images of the menuoptions generated responsive to the user input criteria, a displayengine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to display atleast one user interface, and which is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the menu items, and anordering engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured torequest the at least one selected image of the vendor or menu item fromone or more respective providers associated with the any selected image.

In various embodiments any one, two, three, four, or five of thepreceding systems can include any combination selected from thefollowing features (e.g., any one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twentythree, twenty four, twenty five, or more features) wherein: the systemsfurther comprise an image component configured to manage a plurality ofimages of the food or beverage items generated by respective ones of theplurality of providers; the systems further comprise a payment componentconfigured to: manage payment verification associated with the user,mange payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities; the display engine, isfurther configured to generate an image based menu dynamicallyresponsive to available images of the food or beverage items meetingdisplay criteria defined on the system or meeting display preferencesassociated with the user; the systems further comprise an orderingengine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to: requestthe food or beverage items associated with the plurality of images fromone or more respective providers associated with any selected image, andcoordinate delivery of the food or beverage items from a plurality ofproviders and one or more delivery providers; the systems furthercomprise ordering engine, executed by the at least one processor,configured to request the at least one selected image of the vendor ormenu item from one or more respective providers associated with the anyselected image; the at least one user interface displays at least oneoption for receiving user input for vendor, food type, beverage type andthe menu engine is further configured to return results based on areceived vendor, food type, beverage type across a plurality ofproviders; the menu engine is further configured to organize the imagesof the vendor, or menu options based on a plurality of descriptivecharacteristics including any one or more of: vendor, food type,beverage type, name, related dish, provider location, delivery options,pick-up options, eat-in options, price, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian,gluten free, lactose-free, nut free, ethnicity, kosher, gluten free,grain free, meat free, egg free, fish free, shellfish free, soybeanfree, rating, minimum requirement and provider; the menu engine isfurther configured to search and generate results responsive to userinput of any of the plurality of the descriptive characteristics; thesystems further comprise a rating engine, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to accept user feedback associated with food orbeverage items or the provider; the systems further comprise a networkengine configured to generate an association between at least two usershaving in common one or more of the following: having selected samevendor or menu item, providing rating or feedback, connected socially oninterface or through other social networking engines, having same userstatus, user providing feedback, etc; the systems further comprise anetwork engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured togenerate a network of connected users responsive to analyzing userfeedback provided to the system; the network engine is furtherconfigured to enable users to follow feedback submitted to the systembased on a vendor, menu item or selected user; wherein the networkengine is further configured to enable users to filter user feedbacksubmitted to the system; the network engine is configured to generatethe network responsive to a degree of separation of the user provided tothe system; the systems further comprise a profile engine, executed bythe at least one processor, configured to generate a user profileresponsive to analyzing vendor, menu item or user feedback submitted tothe system; the display engine is configured to display, for at leastone menu option, an indication of a number of remaining items that canbe ordered; the systems are implemented at least on a mobile device or amobile application executing on a mobile device; a mobile devicedisplays the at least one user interface and receives user input for theat least one of the images or user feedback; the ordering engine isfurther configured to manage a request for a plurality of items from aplurality of providers; each image of a food or beverage item isassociated with a display period; the display engine is configured tolimit display of any image of the food or beverage item not meeting anassociated display period; at least some images of food or beverageitems are associated with an availability status; the display engine isfurther configured to limit display of any image of the food or beverageitem based on the availability status; at least one user is able todefine food allergies as part of a user profile, and the display engineis further configured to eliminate any offering from the resultsreturned to the user based on allergen information associated with afood or beverage item; the ordering engine is further configured toselect one or more delivery service providers to dynamically generate adelivery route including pick-up of a plurality of food or beverageitems at a plurality of providers; and the ordering engine is furtherconfigured to select a plurality of delivery service providers todynamically generate a delivery route for the respective providersincluding pick-up of a plurality of food or beverage items at aplurality of providers, wherein the respective delivery routessynchronize a delivery time at a delivery location.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method for managingimage based viewing of food or beverage items is provided. The methodcomprises searching, by a computer system, description characteristicsassociated with images of food or beverage items or respective providersfrom a plurality of providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the act of searching includes filtering the images ofthe food or beverage items responsive to the user input criteria,displaying, by the computer system, at least one user interface, andwherein the at least one user interface is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the food or beverage items,and managing, by the computer system, a plurality of images of the foodor beverage items generated by respective ones of the plurality ofproviders.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method for managingimage based ordering of food or beverage items is provided. The methodcomprises searching, by a computer system, description characteristicsassociated with images of food or beverage items or respective providersfrom a plurality of providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the act of searching includes filtering the images ofthe food or beverage items responsive to the user input criteria,displaying, by the computer system, at least one user interface, andwherein the at least one user interface is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the food or beverage items,and managing, by the computer system, payment verification associatedwith the user, wherein managing payment verification includes managingpayment distribution between at least one of: one or more providers andone or more delivery entities.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented system forgenerating image based menus is provided. The method comprisessearching, by a computer system, description characteristics associatedwith images of food or beverage items or respective providers from aplurality of providers to return results based on user input criteria,wherein the act of searching includes filtering the images of the foodor beverage items responsive to the user input criteria, displaying, bythe computer system, at least one user interface, and wherein the atleast one user interface is configured to accept user selection of atleast one of the images of the food or beverage items, and generating,by the computer system, the image based menu dynamically responsive toavailable images of the food or beverage items meeting display criteriadefined on the system or meeting display preferences associated with theuser.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method forcoordinating delivery of food or beverage items from a plurality ofproviders is provided. The method comprises displaying, by the computersystem, at least one user interface, and wherein the user interface isconfigured to accept user selection of a plurality of the images of foodor beverage items associated with a plurality of providers, requesting,by the computer system, the food or beverage items associated with theplurality of images from one or more respective providers associatedwith any selected image, and automatically coordinating, by the computersystem, delivery of the food or beverage items from a plurality ofproviders and one or more delivery providers.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method for managingimage based viewing or ordering is provided. The method comprisesorganizing, by a computer system, images of vendors or menu options froma plurality of providers, searching, by the computer system, descriptioncharacteristics associated with the images of the vendor or menu optionsfrom the plurality of providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the act of searching includes filtering results of theimages of the menu options responsive to the user input criteria,displaying, by the computer system, at least one user interfaceconfigured to accept user selection of at least one of the images of thevendors or menu items, and requesting, by the computer system, the atleast one selected image of the vendor or menu items from one or morerespective providers associated with the any selected image.

In various embodiments any one, two, three, four, or five of thepreceding methods can include any combination selected from thefollowing features (e.g., any one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twentythree, twenty four, twenty five, or more features) wherein: the methodsfurther comprise an act of managing, by the computer system, a pluralityof images of the food or beverage items generated by respective ones ofthe plurality of providers; the methods further comprise acts of:managing, by the computer system, payment verification associated withthe user, managing, by the computer system, payment distribution betweenat least one of: one or more providers and one or more deliveryentities; the methods further comprise an act of generating, by thecomputer system, an image based menu dynamically responsive to availableimages of the food or beverage items meeting display criteria defined onthe system or meeting display preferences associated with the user; themethods further comprise acts of: requesting, by the computer system,the food or beverage items associated with the plurality of images fromone or more respective providers associated with any selected image, andcoordinating, by the computer system, delivery of the food or beverageitems from a plurality of providers and one or more delivery providers;the methods further comprise an act of requesting, by the computersystem, the at least one selected image of the vendor or menu item fromone or more respective providers associated with the any selected image;the methods further comprise displaying, by the at least one userinterface at least one option for receiving user input for vendor, foodtype, beverage type and the menu engine is further configured to returnresults based on a received vendor, food type, beverage type, review orrating type, availability type, price, minimum order, etc. across aplurality of providers; the methods further comprise an act of receivingfeedback associated with any one or more of: a food or beverage item, aprovider, a delivery provider by any respective participant in thedelivery; the methods further comprise an act of generating anassociation between at least two users having in common one or more ofthe following: having selected same vendor or menu item, providingrating or feedback, connected socially on interface or through othersocial networking engines, having same user status, user providingfeedback, user having same proximity, user having selected same pricerange, etc.; the act of generating the association includes generating anetwork of connected users responsive to analyzing user feedbackprovided to the system; the methods further comprise an act ofcommunicating feedback submitted to the system to another user, based ona vendor, menu item or selected user, identified by the another user;generating the network is executed by the computer system responsive todetermining a degree of separation of the user provided to the system;the methods further comprise an act of generating a user profileresponsive to viewing, ordering, analyzing vendor, menu item, or userrating or feedback, or historic interactions; the methods furthercomprise an act of managing a request for a plurality of items from aplurality of providers; the methods further comprise an act ofgenerating, by the computer system, a reservation at a least oneprovider location responsive to user selections; the methods furthercomprise an act of displaying, by the computer system, any allergeninformation associated with an order; the methods further comprise anact of determining matches between allergies defined in a user profileand allergen information for at least one food or beverage item; eachimage of a food or beverage item is associated with a display period;the methods further comprise an act of limiting, by the computer system,display of any image of the food or beverage item not meeting anassociated display period; at least some images of food or beverageitems are associated with an availability status; the methods furthercomprise an act of limiting, by the computer system, display of anyimage of the food or beverage item based on the availability status; themethods further comprise acts of: accessing information on foodallergies as part of a user profile, and eliminating any offering fromthe results returned to the user based on allergen informationassociated with a food or beverage item; the methods further comprise anact of selecting one or more delivery service providers to dynamicallygenerate a delivery route including pick-up of a plurality of food orbeverage items at a plurality of providers; the methods further comprisean act of selecting a plurality of delivery service providers todynamically generate a delivery route for the respective providersincluding pick-up of a plurality of food or beverage items at aplurality of providers, wherein the respective delivery routessynchronize a delivery time at a delivery location.

According to one aspect, a system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor, configured to: search description characteristicsassociated with images of food items or respective providers from aplurality of providers to return results based on user input criteria,wherein the results are filtered images of the food items responsive tothe user input criteria, a display engine, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to display at least one user interface, andwherein the at least one user interface is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the food items, and an imagecomponent configured to manage a plurality of images of the food itemsgenerated by respective ones of the plurality of providers.

According to one aspect, a system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor, configured to search description characteristicsassociated with images of food items or respective providers from aplurality of providers to return results based on user input criteria,wherein the results are filtered images of the food items responsive tothe user input criteria, a display engine, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to display at least one user interface, andwherein the at least one user interface is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the menu items; and a paymentcomponent configured to: manage payment verification associated with theuser, mange payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities.

According to one aspect, a system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor, configured to: search description characteristicsassociated with images of food items or respective providers from aplurality of providers to return results based on user input criteria,wherein the results are filtered images of the food items responsive tothe user input criteria, and a display engine, executed by the at leastone processor, configured to: display at least one user interface,wherein the at least one user interface is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the menu items, and generatethe image based menu dynamically responsive to available images of thefood items meeting display criteria defined on the system or meetingdisplay preferences associated with the user.

According to one aspect, a system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a display engine, executed by the atleast one processor, configured to display at least one user interface,wherein the user interface is configured to accept user selection of aplurality of the images of food items associated with a plurality ofproviders, and an ordering engine, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to: request the food items associated with theplurality of images from one or more respective providers associatedwith any selected image, and coordinate delivery of the food items froma plurality of providers and one or more delivery providers.

According to one aspect, a system comprises at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor of the at least one server, configured to: organize imagesof vendors or menu options from a plurality of providers, and searchdescription characteristics associated with the images of the vendor ormenu options from the plurality of providers to return results based onuser input criteria, wherein the results are filtered images of the menuoptions generated responsive to the user input criteria, a displayengine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to display atleast one user interface, and which is configured to accept userselection of at least one of the images of the menu items, and anordering engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured torequest the at least one selected image of the vendor or menu item fromone or more respective providers associated with the any selected image.

In various embodiments any one, two, three, four, or five of thepreceding systems can include any combination selected from thefollowing features (e.g., any one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twentythree, twenty four, twenty five, or more features) wherein: the systemsfurther comprise an image component configured to manage a plurality ofimages of the food items generated by respective ones of the pluralityof providers; the systems further comprise a payment componentconfigured to: manage payment verification associated with the user,mange payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities; the display engine, isfurther configured to generate an image based menu dynamicallyresponsive to available images of the food items meeting displaycriteria defined on the system or meeting display preferences associatedwith the user; the systems further comprise an ordering engine, executedby the at least one processor, configured to: request the food itemsassociated with the plurality of images from one or more respectiveproviders associated with any selected image, and coordinate delivery ofthe food items from a plurality of providers and one or more deliveryproviders; the systems further comprise ordering engine, executed by theat least one processor, configured to request the at least one selectedimage of the vendor or menu item from one or more respective providersassociated with the any selected image; the at least one user interfacedisplays at least one option for receiving user input for vendor, foodtype, beverage type and the menu engine is further configured to returnresults based on a received vendor, food type, beverage type across aplurality of providers; the menu engine is further configured toorganize the images of the vendor, or menu options based on a pluralityof descriptive characteristics including any one or more of: vendor,food type, beverage type, name, related dish, provider location,delivery options, pick-up options, eat-in options, price, vegetarian,vegan, pescatarian, gluten free, lactose-free, nut free, ethnicity,kosher, gluten free, grain free, meat free, egg free, fish free,shellfish free, soybean free, rating, minimum requirement and provider;the menu engine is further configured to search and generate resultsresponsive to user input of any of the plurality of the descriptivecharacteristics; the systems further comprise a rating engine, executedby the at least one processor, configured to accept user feedbackassociated with food items or the provider; the systems further comprisea network engine configured to generate an association between at leasttwo users having in common one or more of the following: having selectedsame vendor or menu item, providing rating or feedback, connectedsocially on interface or through other social networking engines, havingsame user status, user providing feedback, etc; the systems furthercomprise a network engine, executed by the at least one processor,configured to generate a network of connected users responsive toanalyzing user feedback provided to the system; the network engine isfurther configured to enable users to follow feedback submitted to thesystem based on a vendor, menu item or selected user; wherein thenetwork engine is further configured to enable users to filter userfeedback submitted to the system; the network engine is configured togenerate the network responsive to a degree of separation of the userprovided to the system; the systems further comprise a profile engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to generate a userprofile responsive to analyzing vendor, menu item or user feedbacksubmitted to the system; the display engine is configured to display,for at least one menu option, an indication of a number of remainingitems that can be ordered; the systems are implemented at least on amobile device or a mobile application executing on a mobile device; amobile device displays the at least one user interface and receives userinput for the at least one of the images or user feedback; the orderingengine is further configured to manage a request for a plurality ofitems from a plurality of providers; each image of a food item isassociated with a display period; the display engine is configured tolimit display of any image of the food item not meeting an associateddisplay period; at least some images of food items are associated withan availability status; the display engine is further configured tolimit display of any image of the food item based on the availabilitystatus; at least one user is able to define food allergies as part of auser profile, and the display engine is further configured to eliminateany offering from the results returned to the user based on allergeninformation associated with a food item; the ordering engine is furtherconfigured to select one or more delivery service providers todynamically generate a delivery route including pick-up of a pluralityof food items at a plurality of providers; and the ordering engine isfurther configured to select a plurality of delivery service providersto dynamically generate a delivery route for the respective providersincluding pick-up of a plurality of food items at a plurality ofproviders, wherein the respective delivery routes synchronize a deliverytime at a delivery location.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented comprises searching,by a computer system, description characteristics associated with imagesof food items or respective providers from a plurality of providers toreturn results based on user input criteria, wherein the act ofsearching includes filtering the images of the food items responsive tothe user input criteria, displaying, by the computer system, at leastone user interface, and wherein the at least one user interface isconfigured to accept user selection of at least one of the images of thefood items, and managing, by the computer system, a plurality of imagesof the food items generated by respective ones of the plurality ofproviders.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented comprises searching,by a computer system, description characteristics associated with imagesof food items or respective providers from a plurality of providers toreturn results based on user input criteria, wherein the act ofsearching includes filtering the images of the food items responsive tothe user input criteria, displaying, by the computer system, at leastone user interface, and wherein the at least one user interface isconfigured to accept user selection of at least one of the images of thefood items, and managing, by the computer system, payment verificationassociated with the user, wherein managing payment verification includesmanaging payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method comprisessearching, by a computer system, description characteristics associatedwith images of food items or respective providers from a plurality ofproviders to return results based on user input criteria, wherein theact of searching includes filtering the images of the food itemsresponsive to the user input criteria, displaying, by the computersystem, at least one user interface, and wherein the at least one userinterface is configured to accept user selection of at least one of theimages of the food items, and generating, by the computer system, theimage based menu dynamically responsive to available images of the fooditems meeting display criteria defined on the system or meeting displaypreferences associated with the user.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method comprisesdisplaying, by the computer system, at least one user interface, andwherein the user interface is configured to accept user selection of aplurality of the images of food items associated with a plurality ofproviders, requesting, by the computer system, the food items associatedwith the plurality of images from one or more respective providersassociated with any selected image, and automatically coordinating, bythe computer system, delivery of the food items from a plurality ofproviders and one or more delivery providers.

According to another aspect, a computer implemented method comprisesorganizing, by a computer system, images of vendors or menu options froma plurality of providers, searching, by the computer system, descriptioncharacteristics associated with the images of the vendor or menu optionsfrom the plurality of providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the act of searching includes filtering results of theimages of the menu options responsive to the user input criteria,displaying, by the computer system, at least one user interfaceconfigured to accept user selection of at least one of the images of thevendors or menu items, and requesting, by the computer system, the atleast one selected image of the vendor or menu items from one or morerespective providers associated with the any selected image.

In various embodiments any one, two, three, four, or five of thepreceding methods can include any combination selected from thefollowing features (e.g., any one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twentythree, twenty four, twenty five, or more features) wherein: the methodsfurther comprise an act of managing, by the computer system, a pluralityof images of the food items generated by respective ones of theplurality of providers; the methods further comprise acts of: managing,by the computer system, payment verification associated with the user,managing, by the computer system, payment distribution between at leastone of: one or more providers and one or more delivery entities; themethods further comprise an act of generating, by the computer system,an image based menu dynamically responsive to available images of thefood items meeting display criteria defined on the system or meetingdisplay preferences associated with the user; the methods furthercomprise acts of: requesting, by the computer system, the food itemsassociated with the plurality of images from one or more respectiveproviders associated with any selected image, and coordinating, by thecomputer system, delivery of the food items from a plurality ofproviders and one or more delivery providers; the methods furthercomprise an act of requesting, by the computer system, the at least oneselected image of the vendor or menu item from one or more respectiveproviders associated with the any selected image; the methods furthercomprise displaying, by the at least one user interface at least oneoption for receiving user input for vendor, food type, beverage type andthe menu engine is further configured to return results based on areceived vendor, food type, beverage type, review or rating type,availability type, price, minimum order, etc. across a plurality ofproviders; the methods further comprise an act of receiving feedbackassociated with any one or more of: a food item, a provider, a deliveryprovider by any respective participant in the delivery; the methodsfurther comprise an act of generating an association between at leasttwo users having in common one or more of the following: having selectedsame vendor or menu item, providing rating or feedback, connectedsocially on interface or through other social networking engines, havingsame user status, user providing feedback, user having same proximity,user having selected same price range, etc.; the act of generating theassociation includes generating a network of connected users responsiveto analyzing user feedback provided to the system; the methods furthercomprise an act of communicating feedback submitted to the system toanother user, based on a vendor, menu item or selected user, identifiedby the another user; generating the network is executed by the computersystem responsive to determining a degree of separation of the userprovided to the system; the methods further comprise an act ofgenerating a user profile responsive to viewing, ordering, analyzingvendor, menu item, or user rating or feedback, or historic interactions;the methods further comprise an act of managing a request for aplurality of items from a plurality of providers; the methods furthercomprise an act of generating, by the computer system, a reservation ata least one provider location responsive to user selections; the methodsfurther comprise an act of displaying, by the computer system, anyallergen information associated with an order; the methods furthercomprise an act of determining matches between allergies defined in auser profile and allergen information for at least one food item; eachimage of a food item is associated with a display period; the methodsfurther comprise an act of limiting, by the computer system, display ofany image of the food item not meeting an associated display period; atleast some images of food items are associated with an availabilitystatus; the methods further comprise an act of limiting, by the computersystem, display of any image of the food item based on the availabilitystatus; the methods further comprise acts of: accessing information onfood allergies as part of a user profile, and eliminating any offeringfrom the results returned to the user based on allergen informationassociated with a food item; the methods further comprise an act ofselecting one or more delivery service providers to dynamically generatea delivery route including pick-up of a plurality of food items at aplurality of providers; the methods further comprise an act of selectinga plurality of delivery service providers to dynamically generate adelivery route for the respective providers including pick-up of aplurality of food items at a plurality of providers, wherein therespective delivery routes synchronize a delivery time at a deliverylocation.

According to one aspect, a graphical user interface is providedcomprising a search tool display configured to receive user input ofsearch criteria elements, a first display of images of including imagesof one or more food items made available by a plurality of foodproviders generated by filtering images of food items available in adatabase responsive to the user input search criteria, wherein each oneof the images of one or more food items in the first display isresponsive to user selection, and in response to selection is configuredto add a food item associated with the images one or more food items toan order, an order display including information on the food itemordered and information on options for delivery or generating areservation.

According to one aspect, a graphical user interface is providedcomprising a search tool display configured to receive user input ofsearch criteria elements, a first display of images of including imagesof a plurality of food items made available by a plurality of foodproviders generated by filtering images of food items available in adatabase responsive to the user input search criteria, wherein each oneof the images of one or more food items in the first display isresponsive to user selection, and in response to selection is configuredto add a food item associated with the images one or more food items toan order, and an input tool displayed in the user interface foraccepting images of food items from the plurality of providers.

In various embodiments any one or two or more of the preceding graphicaluser interfaces can include any combination selected from the followingfeatures (e.g., any one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, or more features)wherein: the input tool is configured to communicate with imaginghardware at the plurality of provider locations to receive capturesimages of the food items by respective ones of the plurality ofproviders; the graphical user interface is further configured togenerate an image based menu dynamically responsive to available imagesof the food items meeting display criteria defined on the system ormeeting display preferences associated with the user; the graphical userinterface is further configured to display at least one option forreceiving user input for vendor, food type, and display results based ona received vendor or food type across a plurality of providers; thegraphical user interface is further configured to organize the images ofthe vendor, or menu options based on a plurality of descriptivecharacteristics including any one or more of: vendor, food type, name,related dish, provider location, delivery options, pick-up options,eat-in options, price, organic, local, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian,gluten free, lactose-free, nut free, ethnicity, kosher, gluten free,grain free, meat free, egg free, fish free, shellfish free, soybeanfree, rating, minimum requirement and provider; the graphical userinterface is further configured to display, for at least one menuoption, an indication of a number of remaining items that can beordered; further comprises a completed order tool configured totransition the graphical user interface to the order display responsiveto selection of the complete order tool; wherein user selection includesclicking with a visual pointer or touching in a touch sensitive displayto select the food item; further comprises a welcome display of imagesof including one or more food items or one or more food providersgenerated at least in part based on a viewing history of a user; furthercomprises a welcome display of images of including one or more fooditems or one or more food providers generated at least in part based onlocation information determined for a user; the order display includes:a first provider display associated with a first provider and at least afirst food item, a second provider display associated with a secondprovider and at least a second food item, and a delivery providerdisplay for displaying candidate delivery providers, based on a deliveryschedule created by an ordering engine based on the first and secondprovider locations and a delivery location; further comprises an acceptorder display tool configured to trigger requests to the first providerand the second provider for the food items, trigger one or more requeststo one or more candidate delivery providers to pick up the food itemsfrom the first and second providers and deliver the food items to thedelivery location; further comprises an accept order display toolconfigured to: trigger requests to the first provider and the secondprovider for the food items, trigger requests to a first candidatedelivery provider and a second candidate delivery provider to pick uprespective food items from the first and second providers and deliverthe food items to the delivery location according to a synchronizeddelivery schedule; further comprises a select delivery options displaytool configured to transition the graphical user interface to a deliverydisplay; further comprises a delivery display configured to display aplurality of candidate delivery providers generated by an orderingengine based on an earliest possible delivery time; the ordering enginedetermines an earliest delivery time responsive to a preparation timeassociated with each food item in the order, candidate deliveryproviders proximate to the first and second provider, and delivery timesassociated with the candidate providers; each display of a candidatedelivery provider is responsive to user selection, whereby a candidatedelivery provider can be selected or excluded responsive to selection bythe user; the ordering engine receives information on user selections inthe graphical user interface; the delivery display is configured todynamically update candidate delivery providers responsive to userselection and/or re-calculation of a delivery schedule by the orderingengine; further comprises a time input display configured to accept auser input delivery time; the delivery display is further configured todynamically update the display of candidate delivery providersresponsive to the input delivery time; the dynamic updating of thedisplay is responsive to recalculation of candidate delivery providersby the ordering engine based on the input delivery time; and wherein thegraphical user interface is implemented by any preceding systemembodiment.

According to one aspect, system is provided. The system comprising atleast one processor operatively connected to a memory; a menu engine,executed by at least one processor, configured to: search descriptivecharacteristics associated with food items or respective providers froma plurality of food providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the results are filtered images of the food items orrespective food providers responsive to the user input criteria; adisplay engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to:display at least one user interface, wherein the at least one userinterface is configured to accept user selection of at least one of theimages of the food items or the respective provider from the pluralityof food providers; and display a respective image based menurepresentative of food offerings available at the respective provider,wherein the image based menu includes images of the food itemsrepresentative of the food offerings made available by the respectiveprovider.

In one embodiment, the display engine is further configured to generatea respective image based menu dynamically responsive to available imagesof the food items meeting display criteria defined on the system. In oneembodiment, the display engine is further configured to analyzeavailable food items and available providers to identify options meetingthe display criteria based on display preferences associated with theuser. In one embodiment, the display preferences include, for example,any one or more of maximum delivery distance, maximum delivery time,minimum rating, maximum price, minimum feedback, previous selection of aprovider by other users, previous selection of a provider by otherspecified users,

In one embodiment, the system further comprises an ordering engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to request the fooditems associated with the plurality of images from one or morerespective providers associated with any selected image. In oneembodiment, the ordering engine is further configured to coordinatedelivery of the food items from a plurality of food providers and one ormore delivery providers. In one embodiment, the ordering engine isfurther configured to: select candidate delivery providers for a groupof potential delivery providers responsive to analyzing customerspecified delivery preferences; and generate potential delivery routesfor a plurality of candidate delivery providers based on determining asoonest coordinated delivery time for the candidate delivery providersat a delivery location.

In one embodiment, the ordering engine is further configured to analyzepreparation time and schedule delivery pick up by the one or moredelivery providers at respective locations of the plurality of foodproviders, and communicate an expected delivery time. In one embodiment,the ordering engine is further configured to: generate a plurality ofrespective delivery routes for a plurality of delivery providers and aplurality of provider locations; and coordinate arrival time of theplurality of delivery providers, based, at least in part, preparationtime, expected travel time, and a coordinated delivery for each of thedelivery providers at a delivery location.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises a payment componentconfigured to: manage payment verification associated with the user;manage payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities. In one embodiment, thepayment component is further configured to generate payment informationresponsive to scheduling a plurality of delivery providers and aplurality of food providers, wherein the payment information isdetermined to include gratuity, service fees, and any other charges inadvanced of booking a food order. In one embodiment, the paymentcomponent is further configured to capture payment in advance ofcommitting a delivery order.

According to one aspect a system is provided. The system comprises atleast one processor operatively connected to a memory; a menu engine,executed by at least one processor, configured to: search descriptivecharacteristics associated with food items or respective providers froma plurality of food providers to return results based on user inputcriteria, wherein the results are filtered images of the food items orrespective food providers responsive to the user input criteria; adisplay engine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to:display at least one user interface, wherein the at least one userinterface is configured to accept user selection of at least one of theimages of the food items; and generate an image based menu dynamicallyresponsive to available images of the food items or the food providersmeeting display criteria defined on the system.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises an image componentconfigured to manage a plurality of images of the food items generatedby respective ones of the plurality of food providers. In oneembodiment, the image component is further configured to communicatewith respective image capture devices at respective food providerlocations to obtain images generated by the respective providers ofprepared food items available for ordering. In one embodiment, thedisplay engine is further configured to limit display of any image ofthe food item not meeting an associated display period starting with animage capture time. In one embodiment, the menu engine is furtherconfigured maintain availability status information on respective fooditems and limit display responsive to analyzing availability status.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises at least one userinterface configured to display at least one option for receiving userinput for vendor, food type, and wherein the menu engine is furtherconfigured to return results based on a received vendor, food type,across a plurality of providers. In one embodiment, the menu engine isfurther configured to organize the images of the vendor, or menu optionsbased on a plurality of descriptive characteristics including any one ormore of: vendor, food type, name, related dish, provider location,delivery options, pick-up options, eat-in options, price, organic,local, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, gluten free, lactose-free, nutfree, ethnicity, kosher, gluten free, grain free, meat free, egg free,fish free, shellfish free, soybean free, rating, minimum requirement andprovider.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises a rating engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to accept userfeedback associated with food items or the provider. In one embodiment,the system further comprises a network engine configured to generate anassociation between at least two users having in common one or more ofthe following: having selected same vendor or menu item, providingrating or feedback, connected socially on interface or through othersocial networking engines, having same user status, and user providingfeedback. In one embodiment, the network engine is configured togenerate the network responsive to a degree of separation of the userprovided to the system.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises a profile engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to generate a userprofile responsive to analyzing vendor, menu item or user feedbacksubmitted to the system. In one embodiment, the system includes at leasta mobile device or a mobile application executing on a mobile device tointerface with the menu engine, ordering engine, and display engine. Inone embodiment, the system further comprises an ordering engine,executed by the at least one processor, configured to request the fooditems associated with the plurality of images from one or morerespective providers associated with any selected image. In oneembodiment, the ordering engine is further configured to coordinatedelivery of the food items from a plurality of food providers and one ormore delivery providers.

In one embodiment, the ordering engine is further configured to: selectcandidate delivery providers for a group of potential delivery providersresponsive to analyzing customer specified delivery preferences; andgenerate potential delivery routes for a plurality of candidate deliveryproviders based on determining a soonest coordinated delivery time forthe candidate delivery providers at a delivery location. In oneembodiment, the ordering engine is further configured to analyzepreparation time and schedule delivery pick up by the one or moredelivery providers at respective locations of the plurality of foodproviders, and communicate an expected delivery time. In one embodiment,the ordering engine is further configured to: generate a plurality ofrespective delivery routes for a plurality of delivery providers and aplurality of provider locations; and coordinate arrival time of theplurality of delivery providers, based, at least in part, preparationtime, expected travel time, and a coordinated delivery for each of thedelivery providers at a delivery location.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises a payment componentconfigured to: manage payment verification associated with the user;manage payment distribution between at least one of: one or moreproviders and one or more delivery entities. In one embodiment, thepayment component is further configured to generate payment informationresponsive to scheduling a plurality of delivery providers and aplurality of food providers, wherein the payment information isdetermined to include gratuity, service fees, and any other charges inadvanced of booking a food order. In one embodiment, the paymentcomponent is further configured to capture payment in advance ofcommitting a delivery order.

Other aspects, embodiments and advantages of these exemplary aspects andembodiments, are discussed in detail below. Moreover, it is to beunderstood that both the foregoing information and the followingdetailed description are merely illustrative examples of various aspectsand embodiments, and are intended to provide an overview or frameworkfor understanding the nature and character of the claimed aspects andembodiments. Any embodiment disclosed herein may be combined with anyother embodiment. References to “an embodiment,” “an example,” “someembodiments,” “some examples,” “an alternate embodiment,” “variousembodiments,” “one embodiment,” “at least one embodiment,” “this andother embodiments” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusiveand are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment may beincluded in at least one embodiment. The appearances of such termsherein are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment orexample.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Various aspects of at least one embodiment are discussed below withreference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to bedrawn to scale. The figures are included to provide an illustration anda further understanding of the various aspects and embodiments, and areincorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are notintended as a definition of the limits of any particular embodiment. Thedrawings, together with the remainder of the specification, serve toexplain principles and operations of the described and claimed aspectsand embodiments. In the figures, each identical or nearly identicalcomponent that is illustrated in various figures is represented by alike numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may belabeled in every figure. In the figures:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example viewing and/or ordering system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example environmental for a viewingand/or ordering system;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for displaying an imagebased menu;

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram illustrating a process for submittingfeedback;

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram illustrating a process for generatingconnections between users and generating user evaluations;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a process for submitting a fooditem; and

FIG. 6 a schematic diagram of an exemplary computer system that may bespecially configured to perform processes and functions disclosedherein;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example screen capture of a user interface,according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an example screen capture of a user interface,according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

At least some embodiments disclosed herein include apparatus andprocesses for managing image based viewing and/or ordering of food,beverage, or any other food offering. According to some embodiments,provided is a system for accessing image based menus which can beorganized and displayed based on food or beverage type across a numberof providers (e.g., restaurants, fast-food locations, niche markets,etc.). For example, users can access a viewing or ordering system tosearch on any desired food or beverage type, or other food or beveragecharacteristic, and view image based results of options matching thefood or beverage type or characteristics regardless of an associatedprovider and/or provider location. In some examples, the system providesaccess to high quality images taken of the prepared foods. In furtherexamples, the system can provide access to images of prepared foods assoon as the food is prepared. The users are given the opportunity ofseeing on-line what they are going to order. In some examples, theimages can be captured and processed by the system and provided to theuser in current or real time. According to one aspect, high endrestaurants and specialty chefs may prepare limited number of specialtydishes. The system can be configured to track such scarce options, andprovide tools for ordering and delivery, or for reserving one or more ofthe limited supply specialty dishes along with a reservation for atable.

In other embodiments, the system provides access to variety of food orbeverage options that would conventionally be limited to a singleprovider. In further embodiments, the system can be configured toaggregate orders across multiple providers enabling customization of anorder that includes any number of restaurants/providers. According tosome implementations, the system can be accessed using a computer ormobile device executing an installed application. The application and/orsystem can be configured to generate and display user interfaces forenabling the user to enter selection of any image and request that theimaged food item be delivered to a user specified location.

Examples of the methods and systems discussed herein are not limited inapplication to the details of construction and the arrangement ofcomponents set forth in the following description or illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. The methods and systems are capable ofimplementation in other embodiments and of being practiced or of beingcarried out in various ways. Examples of specific implementations areprovided herein for illustrative purposes only and are not intended tobe limiting. In particular, acts, components, elements and featuresdiscussed in connection with any one or more examples are not intendedto be excluded from a similar role in any other examples.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. Any references toexamples, embodiments, components, elements or acts of the systems andmethods herein referred to in the singular may also embrace embodimentsincluding a plurality, and any references in plural to any embodiment,component, element or act herein may also embrace embodiments includingonly a singularity. References in the singular or plural form are notintended to limit the presently disclosed systems or methods, theircomponents, acts, or elements. The use herein of “including,”“comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and variationsthereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter andequivalents thereof as well as additional items. References to “or” maybe construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” mayindicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms.

Example Ordering System

Some embodiments implement an ordering system that manages storage,organization, and display of image based menus. The system can generatevisual displays or a visual menu tailored to the user's preferences aswell as the user specifies it. For example, the system searches andreturns images of actual food or beverage items based on user enteredsearch terms specifying one or more food or beverage characteristics(e.g., restaurant, food or beverage type, dietary restrictions,availability, rating, price, minimum requirements, allergen information,etc.). The system is configured to generate a visual display tailored tothe returned results and/or the user. In some embodiments, users canselect any number of items from the displayed images. The images may bereal time captures of a prepared dish, beverage, appetizer, etc.,allowing the user to view a fully prepared option of the food beingselected based on images that are only hours or even minutes old. Infurther examples, specialty dishes are prepared as limited numberorders. The images of these specialty dishes provide the expectation ofreceiving what is imaged. In yet other examples, the image may be thedish or food item that is being purchased for delivery, dining in ortake-out. As used herein a food item includes solid foods, desserts, andany other human consumable solid for calorie and/or nutrition. Beverageitem includes any liquid food and/or beverages, for example, served at aprovider.

According to another embodiment, the ordering system includes orderingfunctionality to facilitate take-out, delivery and/or a reservation withan associated order. In some implementations, the system can manageorder aggregation across a plurality of providers, manage the order anddelivery of the food, beverage, etc., to the requesting user, and managedistribution of payment to the respective providers. Typically, the userreceives an order confirmation specifying a delivery time and anyadditional instructions, if any.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of an ordering system 100. Theordering system 100 can be configured to manage searching, display, andordering of any food or beverage item (e.g., entrée, beverage, dessert,etc.). The system can be configured to integrate with mobile devicesand/or mobile applications executing on the mobile devices to provideaccess to search tools, display menus, and/or order or reservationfunctionality. In one example, the system 100 can include a managementengine 104 configured to execute the search, display, and/or ordering orreservations functions. In some embodiments, various elements of thesystem 100 can be implemented by specially configuring a computingsystem such as the computer system 600 and/or 602 described withreference to FIG. 6. For example, the management engine 104 can beexecuted on the computer system 600 and/or 602 specially configured toprovide the functions and operations discussed herein. In otherembodiments, the management engine 104 can include additional componentsexecuted on the computer system to perform specific operations. In someimplementations, the system 100 and/or management engine 104 can beconfigured to communicate with mobile applications and/or mobile devicesto accept user input 102 and provide management of viewing (e.g.,viewing display 106A), selection, ordering (e.g., order display 106B),reservation (e.g. reservation display 106C) and delivery of any food orbeverage made available through subscribing providers (e.g., delivery106D).

As shown in FIG. 1, the management engine 104 receives input 102 fromusers regarding food or beverage characteristics they wish to see. Thefood or beverage characteristics can include any description informationregarding a food or beverage item (e.g., food type, vendor, beveragetype, name, related dish, provider location, delivery options, pick-upoptions, eat-in options, price, organic, local, vegetarian, vegan,pescatarian, gluten free, lactose-free, nut free, ethnicity, kosher,gluten free, grain free, shellfish free, rating, minimum requirement,availability, and provider, among other options). Responsive to the userinput 102 of food or beverage characteristics, the management engine 104is configured to search a food database of images and associatedinformation (e.g., associated food or beverage characteristics) togenerate a viewing display 106A for the user. The user can select anydisplayed image of a food or beverage item via user input 102, forexample, received by the management engine 104 and generate an order106B based on one or more user selections. In further embodiments, theuser can select an image of a food or beverage item or an image of afood provider to book reservations (e.g., 106C) with the provider. Insome examples, the user can select the food they wish to order, schedulea reservation and/or time that the food will be ready for the user at atable at the provider location. The user may preselect any food orbeverage item (e.g., entrée, side, beverage, dessert, etc.), and set aschedule for their meal through the reservation functionality.

According to some embodiments, the system 100 and/or engine 104 caninclude additional components configured to perform various functions onthe system. In one embodiment, the system and/or engine can include amenu engine 108 configured to accept user input 102, specifying anysearch criteria. The menu engine 108 is configured to search a food orbeverage item database (not shown) to return images of the food orbeverage items in the database. The menu engine can be configured tosearch based on food or beverage type, supplier (e.g., vendor), or anyother food or beverage item characteristic. The menu engine can beconfigured to tailor the returned results, and tailor a display of thereturned results (e.g., 106A) based on the returned results themselves,based on the vendors associated with the returned results, and/or basedon the user entering the search terms. For example, the ordering usercan have an associated user profile specifying preferences for food orbeverage providers (e.g., minimum rating, price range, distance fromuser, etc.). In some examples, the user profile can include preferenceinformation for delivery (e.g., no motor vehicle deliveries, take-out,not from a specific delivery service, delivery service must have minimumrating, etc.). In some examples, provider profile information can limitmatching results (e.g., minimum delivery, price, organic, local,take-out, maximum delivery radius, minimum user rating, hours ofoperations, dine in only, etc.) and the menu engine can optimize thedisplay of any results.

According to some embodiments, the system 100 and/or management engine104 can include further components specially configured to optimizedisplays of food or beverage item images within search results and/orcreate custom visual menus responsive to search inputs and optionallyprofile information. For example, the system and/or engine can include adisplay engine 110 configured to determine if the searching user hasinput any rating or reviews associated with the returned results and/orvendors associated with the returned results. The display engine can beconfigured to execute display rules that analyze the review input by thesearching user (e.g., free text input—“never eat here” can triggerexclusion of the vendor from the searching users returned results). Inother examples, ratings associated with the searching user can be usedby the system to elevate presentation of the images of the food orbeverage items that are associated with reviews in the result display.The display rules executed by the display engine can be further used togenerate a display order for the food or beverage items and/orrestaurants/vendors having reviews. In further embodiments, users cansee customized displays of items (e.g., food or beverages), restaurants,and/or vendors, wherein the displays elements are arranged based onhaving reviews or associated ratings. In some embodiments, custom visualselections can be generated organizing the results into sectioneddisplays. The system can provide descriptive information associated withthe display sections. In one example, the display sections can specify“Matching Vendors with Reviews” and “Unreviewed Matching Vendors.” Thedisplay rules can also analyze any review entered for a food or beverageitem and/or vendor to customize the displayed results. In furtherexamples, the display rules can analyze reviews of users associated withthe searching user, and modify display precedence and/or customize thevisual displays based on reviews entered by users associated with thesearching user. In further embodiments, any of the displays/displayrules that can be executed on the system to provide ordering functionscan also be executed by the system to provider reservation functions. Insome embodiments, the system can even schedule successive reservationsacross a plurality of providers. For example, the system can generatereservations at a series of food providers, one for the entrée, one fordessert, and yet another for drinks. The system can coordinate suchreservations, and even, in some examples coordinate transportationbetween providers. The displays generated by the system can beconfigured to coordination any order and/or reservation request andtailor the functions according to any preference/search criteriaprovided.

According to one embodiment, the searching user can then enter selectionof the display items (e.g., as user input 102). In some examples, thesystem and/or management engine 104 can include an ordering engine 112configured to aggregate user's selections in the display into anexecutable order. In one example, the ordering engine 112 can beconfigured to manage ordering with multiple providers (e.g., vendors)and manage payment by the users and distribute any payment to theparticipating vendors. Additionally, the ordering engine 112 can also beconfigured to manage the delivery of the food or beverage items andtrigger either a delivery option provided by the vendor, or invoke adelivery option provided by the system to service any number of vendors.Additionally, the system can enable delivery services to subscribe tothe system and register to become validated delivers. The system can beconfigured to select from validated delivers automatically or providedelivery options to the user for selection.

According to some embodiments, the ordering engine 112 is configured toidentify vendors who do not have any delivery or take-out option, and/orwho have not subscribed with a delivery or take-out option (eitherprovided by the system or otherwise) and will prevent orders thatincorporate both delivery or take-out and dine in only vendors.

According to various embodiments, the ordering engine 112 can beconfigured to manage payment and collection from ordering users. In someembodiments, the ordering engine 112 can be configured to calculateretail pricing for any food and/or beverage being ordered andautomatically trigger payment collection so that neither the deliverypersonnel nor the ordering users needs to exchange cash as part of thetransaction. In further embodiments, the ordering engine 112 can beconfigured to automatically include tip as part of the paymentprocessing. In some examples, user can set a tip percentage or maximumtip as part of their user profile. Delivery services can likewise set aminimum tip threshold they require in order to participate in a deliveryorder.

According to one embodiment, the system 100, management engine 104,and/or ordering engine 112 can be configured to request deliveryservices from third parties like UBER or other electronic taxi,messenger or bike services. If the system can match a third partytransportation provider to an order as it is generated, the system candisplay the matching options to the ordering customer. In some examples,food or beverage options that would not be displayed can becomeavailable based on matching third party delivery options dynamically.

In further embodiments, the ordering engine 112 can be configured tooptimize delivery schedules and selection of one or more deliveryproviders based on user selected order options, users profiles, providerprofiles, and/or delivery service profiles. In some examples, the systemand/or engine 112 can select multiple delivery services to handle anorder from a plurality of providers. In some embodiments, the system maydetermine that combinations of certain providers and/or deliveryservices are not possible or are prevented by profile restrictions. Ifthe option is not possible, the system can be configured to gray out ornot display food or beverage items associated with the restricteddelivery route(s). If the option is prevented by profile restriction,the system and/or ordering engine 112 can be configured to display theoption and identify that the option is outside of specified parameters.The entity or vendor specifying the restriction in question can allowthe transaction to take place upon confirming the non-compliant option(e.g., exceed a maximum number of delivery orders in one delivery, doesnot meet a minimum number or price of delivery orders for one delivery,exceeds a maximum distance, etc.).

In some embodiments, the system and/or management engine 104 can alsoinclude a networking engine 114. The networking engine 114 can beconfigured to generate and store association between users of thesystem. For example, the networking engine 114 can include associationrules that define a triggering event and an association type to createbetween two or more users. For example, the triggering events identifiedby the networking engine can include any one, two, three, four, five,six, or all of the following: having selected same vendor or menu item,providing rating or feedback, providing rating or feedback on the samefood or beverage item, providing rating or feedback on the same vendor,having matching ratings or feedback on any one or more of: food orbeverage item; vendor; and food type, connected via a social media siteor through other social networking engines, price preferences, proximityof users, and having a matching user status. Other associations can beidentified and used to generate connections/associations between two ormore users, including order history, matching order parameters (e.g.,same combinations of vendors in an order, same food or beverage item inorder, same provider, same price preference, same member status, etc.).

In some embodiments, the management engine 104 can be configured toperform the functions and operations discussed with respect to thevarious components rather than requiring any specific component. Asdiscussed, the management engine 104 and any components can beimplemented and the function discussed executed by an ordering system(e.g., 100).

In further embodiments, the system 100 and/or engine 104 can include arating engine 116 configured to accept a rating or review of any of thesystem's operations. For example, ordering users can enter ratings orreviews regarding the food they ordered, the restaurant or vendor, thedelivery service that delivered the food to their location, etc.According to some embodiments, the system can be configured to processfree text inputs from users and define a rating or review associatedwith any restaurant or vendor, ordered food, delivery personnel,timeliness, etc.

The rating engine 116 can also be configured to accept rating or reviewinformation on the customers (e.g., ordering or eat-in users). Forexample, a provider or vendor can enter rating or review informationassociated with ordering or eat-in users. User behavior can berecorded/rated through the rating engine 116. For example, a providercan indicate that a user was abusive during eating-in or ordering,combative, confrontational, etc. Alternatively, a provider can note anexceptional customer (e.g., patient, friendly, etc). In someembodiments, provider profiles may specify that the provider onlyaccepts orders from customers without negative feedback, or customerswho meet a specified rating level, etc.

In some embodiments, providers can also specify minimum rating and/orreview requirements for delivery personnel. Delivery services/personnelcan be excluded by the system in response to analyzing rating and/orreview information provided by customer and/or providers. According tosome embodiments, the rating engine 116 is configured to be accessibleto any participant in the viewing, ordering/delivery process, orreservation process. In some examples, delivery personnel canrate/review customers, providers or vendors, as well as berated/reviewed by respective customers/users and providers/vendors. Insome implementations the rating engine is fully accessible to anyparticipant in the system. Food providers, delivery personnel, andcustomers may each rate their experience with each other providing richfeedback information that is used by the system to tailor subsequentexperiences and subscriptions, to analyze against profile information,and/or any specified restrictions or criteria.

Various embodiments may analyze the feedback information provided tooptimize visual menus displays. For example, associated user feedbackcan be weighted by the system to have a greater affect on displayoptimization. Feedback can be used to establish associations betweenuser having similar opinions, experiences, and/or ordering history. Thetailoring of the visual menu displays can also be tailored based on theenvironment in which the system operates.

Shown in FIG. 2 is another embodiment of an ordering system 200 and anexample environment. The ordering system 200 can be configured toexecute a management engine (e.g., 104) or perform the operationsdiscussed above with respect to the management engine (e.g., 104) andany associated components (e.g., 108-112). According to one embodiment,system 200 includes a management engine 202 configured to communicatewith users (e.g., 206), providers (e.g., 208), and optionally deliveryservices (e.g., 210) over network 212. Network 212 can include a varietyof network architectures, LAN, WAN, MAN, and can include, for example,connections to the Internet as well as local, cellular, private, and/orsecure connections.

According to one example, end users can access the system 200 vianetwork 212 using their respective computing devices (including forexample, mobile devices 206B, personal computers 206A, or any computingdevice at a delivery location 206C). In some examples, the system caninclude a voice interpreter to capture audio based orders entered viacomputer or phone, and translate the audio based order into an executionformat for the system 200. The end user can search a food or beverageitem database (e.g., 214) and review images associated with food orbeverage items returned by search inputs. The food or beverage itemdatabase (e.g., 214) includes a multitude of food or beverage items,descriptive information, and associated images. The system enables usersto select food or beverage options from a plurality of providers(including, for example, 208A, 208B, 208C, and 208D).

According to some embodiments, any number of providers (e.g., vendors)can subscribe to the system 200 and make any food or beverage optionsavailable to end users that they are willing to provide. In someimplementations, an ordering system (e.g., 200) can include asubscription component (e.g., 204) which can be included and/or executedby a management engine (e.g., 202). The subscription component isconfigured to create user accounts for subscribers (e.g., the providers)and capture information on the respective provider's offerings (e.g.,food or beverage items, food/beverage type, pricing, additional chargesif any, etc.) and services (e.g., dine in only, delivery options,walk-ins welcome, reservations, reservations not accepted, etc.). Thesubscription component 204 is further configured to manage a providerprofile for each provider account. The provider profile can include anydescription information associated with the provider (e.g., food type,price, ratings, reviews, awards, hours, etc.). The provider can editand/or manage their own profile through their user account. In furtherembodiments, respective providers can manage their profile informationto ensure the information remains up-to-date.

According to one example, the provider accesses the system 200 and usesthe functionality provided by subscription component 204 to captureimages of food or beverage items being offered, as well as enteringdescriptive information regarding the food or beverage item (e.g., foodor beverage type, location, beverage type, food name, related dish,delivery options, pick-up options, eat-in options, price, vegetarian,vegan, pescatarian, gluten free, lactose-free, nut free, ethnicity,kosher, gluten free, grain free, shellfish free, any minimum orderrequirement, among other options). In some implementations, the systemcan include image intelligence, and the system can analyze images ofprepared dishes to automatically populate descriptive informationresponsive to an uploaded image of the food or beverage item. In someexamples, the system can present such automatically derived descriptiveinformation to the provider to approve and/or input additionalinformation (e.g., gluten free, nut-free, price, etc.).

In other embodiments, the system can be configured to evaluate imagesgenerated for food or beverage items to ensure quality of the image(e.g., minimum resolution of photo). In some examples, image analysiscan be performed to ensure the images is not blurry, has good lighting,is sized according to a standard format, among other options. Accordingto some aspects, the standardization of the imaging format facilitatescustomer review and improves expectations of the customer regarding thefood or beverage items being ordered. In additional embodiments,profession style photos may be required by the system in order to createa food listing. In some examples, the system may specify different photoquality levels of the images of food or beverage items. In someembodiments, quality levels may be based on the quality rating of theprovider (e.g., five star restaurant requires professional images and arecent photo (e.g., within a few hours or on the same day as theoffering) versus unrated or take-out only establishments (e.g., mobilephoto sufficient taken with a few days of the offering being displayed).In other embodiments, the quality levels are implemented on the systemto ensure consistency between providers.

According to another embodiment, the subscription component 204 can befurther configured to manage registration of delivery providers. Forexample, delivery providers can specify delivery areas, expecteddelivery time for one or more delivery radiuses in their delivery area,associated charges to add to a food order, etc. Delivery providers canalso specific restrictions on delivery request through a deliveryprofile. The delivery profile can specify hours of operation,restrictions on delivery areas based on time, restriction on deliverylocations based on customer information (e.g., minimum customer rating,no “abusive” feedback, etc.), different delivery time estimates based ontime of day (e.g., rush hour delivery estimates increase, etc.).Additionally, the system can monitor delivery operations by any deliveryprovider and associate actual delivery times to the estimates provided,and the system can use historical information and estimate informationto select from various delivery providers. According to furtherembodiments, the system can determine delivery time estimates based ondistance, map location, traffic patterns, etc. In some examples, thesystem can query traffic applications and/or traffic systems and accesstransportation time estimates between locations from time estimatesprovided by third party services.

In some embodiments, the subscription component 204 can include aprofile engine configured to capture information on system participants.The profile engine can build user profiles on any participant detailinginteractions with the system. In some examples, the profile engine canbe configured to accept user specification of information as well ascapturing activity information. In some examples, activity can becaptured using cookies or other tracking media.

In other examples, delivery providers can also specify a minimum tipamount and/or minimum tip percentage that upon approval is automaticallyadded to an order price with payment managed by the ordering system. Invarious embodiments, the system is configured to manage an entirelycashless process, where all payment functions are automatic at thecompletion of delivery.

As discussed, a management engine and/or ordering system can beconfigured to execute a variety of processes to implement ordering orreservation services across any number of providers. FIG. 3 illustratesan example process flow 300 for ordering or generating reservationsassociated with one or more providers or one or more food or beverageitems. The process 300 begins at 302 with processing of search termsspecifying descriptive information for a food based order orreservation. As discussed users can enter free text input for food orbeverage characteristics. In some embodiments, processing of searchterms can include natural language processing to identify relevant foodor beverage characteristics on which to search from a user's free textinput. Descriptive information regarding the food or beverage item caninclude any number of options. For example, a food or restaurant orvendor type (e.g., Indian, Pub, Chinese, Sushi, Food Truck, etc.) can bespecified to return results from a number of providers. In otherexamples, search inputs can specify specific dishes (e.g., lobsterthermidor, shrimp fra diavolo, specialty creations, etc.).

Once matching results are identified (e.g., step 304), visual menus canbe tailored to the user based on the available providers, available foodor beverage options, and/or based on user preferences at 306. Users canscan through any number of images of food or beverage items, selectingvarious images to create a food/beverage order. Users can inputadditional search terms, select food or beverage categories, etc., tonarrow the display of results. Additional examples of inputs can includeone or more of: location, beverage type, food name, related dish,delivery options, pick-up options, eat-in options, price, organic,local, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, gluten free, lactose-free, nutfree, ethnicity, kosher, gluten free, grain free, shellfish free, andany minimum order requirement, among other options.

At 307, it is determined if the searching user is requesting areservation or not. If not, 307 NO, at 308, order information isaccepted to build a customer food or beverage order. According to someexamples, as user select one or more options from the display, someremaining options in the display of results can be removed or “grayedout” to prevent selection. For example, if a food or beverage item hasbeen selected with delivery options, providers and associated food orbeverage options having eat-in only restrictions can be removed from thedisplayed list of options. In other examples, an ordering system canmaintain expected delivery times for providers, and manage the displayof food or beverage results accordingly. For example, images of the foodor beverage items resulting from search inputs can be grouped accordingto delivery time. In further examples, selection within one of thedelivery time windows can be configured to gray out other delivery timegroupings.

According to same embodiments, delivery time grouping can be made basedon a plurality of delivery providers, and the system can optimizedelivery selection to ensure that the largest number of options aredisplayed in each grouping.

Once all order information from a user has been accepted at 308, acomplete order can be displayed to a user. Once the user confirms theorder information, the actual completion of the order can take place at310. For example, to complete the order the order is delivered to anyprovider associated with the ordered food or beverage items. If deliveryhas been selected, delivery and preparation of the food or beverageitems is scheduled. In other examples, if the user wishes to make areservation (e.g., 307 YES) a reservation can be scheduled and afood/beverage order submitted to the kitchen to synchronize arrival ofthe patron, a settling time period, and presentation of the orderedfood/beverage to the table at 312. In further examples, the reservationcan be scheduled at 312 and an order identified to the provider.

Further processes can be executed by, for example, an ordering systemonce a dining experience is complete. For example, FIG. 4A illustrates aprocess 400 for receiving user feedback. Any user can access the displayof food/beverage images and select a provide feedback or “rate this”option in the display. For example, process 400 can begin with a useraccessing a set of images of food/beverage options, or in other examplesa display of previous orders associated with a user at 402. At 404, theuser is given the option of providing rating information (e.g., 1 to 10,selected number of stars, etc.) and the user feedback is accepted andstored. In other options, the user can enter free text input and thesystem can extract relevant feedback or rating information based onnatural language processing algorithms at 404. Any feedback associatedwith a particular food or beverage item, a particular provider, deliveryexperience, etc. can be accepted at 404 and stored at 406. Optionally,process 400 can include operations to identify and generate connectionsbetween users based, for example, on the rating or feedback provided,same restaurant or vendor experience, same price preference, etc. Inother examples, users can provide information on their social networksand the system can automatically import information on user connectionsto generate connections.

In further embodiments, social or other connections can be used torecommend food or beverage options, providers, etc., that may be ofinterest to a respective user. Historic ordering, for example, of thesame dish, price, a number of orders from the same provider, etc., canbe used by the system to identify and generate a connection betweenusers. In further embodiments, an ordering system can match any viewing,feedback, and/or ordering or reservation activity between users of thesystem. In some embodiments, modeling of user behavior can be used tomatch on multiple criteria (e.g., food or beverage type most oftenorders, same/similar food or beverage ordered consistently, multiplematches in food or beverage type, dish, one or more providers, etc.) togenerate connections and/or to generate connections with connectionstrength evaluations. In some examples, connections and connectionstrength ratings can be used to tailor viewing displays to respectiveusers.

FIG. 4B illustrates and example process flow for generating connectionsbetween users. Process 450 begins at 452 with evaluation of usage data.In some embodiment, any ordering/viewing activity can be captured andstored, for example, in association with a user profile. The usage datacan be evaluated to identify identical or similar activity. Responsive,to identification of identical or similar activity, various users can bematch at 454. Optionally, process 450 can include a user confirmationstep, where a generated connection is presented to a user forconfirmation (e.g., 456) before the connection and associatedinformation is used to provide recommendations. In other embodiments,confirmation is not required and ordering/viewing/reservation menus canbe tailored to a searching user based on any one or more of: theirhistorical information, defined preferences, and/or based on informationassociated with connected users. In some examples, the food, beverage,dessert, etc., display within the menus can also be tailored to thesearching user based on any one or more of: their historicalinformation, defined preferences, and/or based on information associatedwith connected users.

According to some implementations, other processes can also be executedin addition to the ordering/viewing protocols discussed above. FIG. 5illustrates an example process 500 for adding subscribers and/or food orbeverage items. Process 500 begins at 502 with accessing an orderingsystem. A food/beverage service provider can access a viewing orordering system at 502 and create a provider profile to subscribe to theviewing/ordering system. Defining the provider profile at 504 caninclude specifying details about the provider, including, for example,location, location photos, hours, delivery options, take-out options,dine-in options, ordering restriction (e.g., minimum order, location,distance, cash or cash equivalent only, etc.), keywords relating tovendor (e.g. breakfast, lunch, dinner, kid friendly, full bar, Michelinstar, prefix, etc). Further profile information can include approximatepreparation times, food or beverage item specific preparation times,contact information, rating information (e.g., Zagat rating), awardinformation (e.g., Michelin award). Once a provider has completed aprovider profile, the provider can begin to input food or beverageoptions to be made available through the system at 506.

In some embodiments, the provider enters descriptive information for thefood or beverage item at 508. The provider can specify food or beveragetype, food or beverage category, flavor, spicy, pricing, mainingredient(s), availability information, including, for example, anylimits on availability, number of food or beverage items available, etc.Further information can include, good pairings with the food option(e.g., side dishes and/or beverages), among other options. In preparinga food or beverage listing for viewing or sale, delivery, etc., theprovider can be required to upload a photo of a prepared dish orbeverage (e.g., at 510). In various embodiments, a photograph of theprepared dish or beverage is the vehicle by which users view and/orselect food or beverage to order, thus a photo of the food or beverageoptions can be made a requirement. In some embodiments, subscription tothe service can include delivery of imaging hardware for capturingpictures of food or beverage items as they are prepared. In otherembodiments, the system can be configured to evaluate images generatedfor food or beverage items to ensure quality of the image (e.g., minimumresolution of photo). In some examples, image analysis can be performedto ensure the images is not blurry, has good lighting, is sizedaccording to a standard format, among other options.

In other embodiments, steps 506-510 can also be facilitated via imageprocessing, such that a provider can upload a photograph of the food orbeverage item and various characteristics of that item can beautomatically identified via image processing. In some embodiments, theprocess 500 can be executed multiple times to build a database of foodor beverage items for viewing or ordering for a plurality of providers.

According to some aspects, the process 500 can be executed to ensuretimeliness of the images of food or beverage items presented to users.For example, images can be captured with time stamps, and process 500can optionally require new images once a photo's timeliness has expired.In some implementations, new photos may be required on a daily basis.Other time periods can be enforced automatically on a viewing/orderingsystem.

According to some embodiments, professional photographs may be requiredby the system. Professional photographs can ensure consistency andstandardization of images across providers and/or food type.

According to another aspect, any food or beverage item stored on thesystem and/or food or beverage ingredients associated with food orbeverage items can also be associated with dietary profiles. In someembodiments, dietary profile information can be required by the systembefore a food or beverage offering is displayed for viewing or sale. Forexample, the system can require information on common allergens that maybe present in a food or beverage item. Common food allergens include,for example, milk, eggs, fish (e.g., bass, flounder, and cod),crustacean shellfish (e.g. crab, lobster, and shrimp), tree nuts (e.g.,almonds, walnuts, and pecans), peanuts, wheat, and soybeans, among otherexamples. Various ingredients can be stored on the system withassociations to known allergens, such that the system can automaticallyflag a food or beverage item for a potential allergy concern responsiveto input of ingredient information. In some embodiments, the system canbe configured to prevent listing of a food or beverage item, if allergeninformation has not been submitted. For example, the system can displaywarning messages requesting allergen information, etc.

In further embodiments, the system can provide visual menus that areconfigured to group allergen containing foods or beverages based onrespective allergens. Warning messages can be displayed by the system tousers as they browse food/beverage selections, view food or beverageitems, add items to orders, etc.

Social Reservation Examples

According to one aspect, the system (e.g., 100) can be configured tofacilitate creation and management of social events. The system can beconfigured to manage reservations with service provider locations forany number of attendees. For example, any restaurant or other providersubscribing to the system that accepts reservations can be engaged as alocation for a social event generated through the ordering system.According to some embodiments, the system is configured to provide userinterfaces that facilitate definition of an event, definition ofinvitees to the event (e.g., within a user network or outside of theuser's network), and manage acceptance of the invitations. In furtherexamples, the system can manage and/or display confirmation of confirmedor booked locations. The system can also manage and/or display confirmedinvitees. In further examples, the system can also be configured tofacilitate and manage promotional events by providers. For example, thesystem can deliver invitations to a provider network. The providernetwork can be generated by the system, for example, based on users whohave ordered from the provider.

According to one embodiment, the engine 112 can be configured to manageevent definition, deliver invitations, maintain status on participants(e.g., confirmed, declined, tentative or maybe, among other options),and further maintain status on a location for the event. In anotherembodiment, the system can further comprise an event engine configuredto accept use definition of event parameters such as event confirmationdeadline, manage participants, and/or locations. The event engine can beconfigured to execute any of the functions discussed herein associatedwith event.

In some embodiments, an ordering system can facilitate customized foodorders for each participant for an event. The participants can accessthe provider location through the event invitation, select from visualmenu options, and order meals, drinks, etc., prior to the actual event.In some embodiments, the organizer of the event can define eventrestrictions and customized food, drink, etc., choices can be presentedto the event participants based on the restrictions

According to another embodiment, the system provides for eventdefinition through mobile applications and user interfaces presented ona mobile device (e.g., a smart phone, tablet, or other portablecomputing device). In one embodiment, a user can trigger eventdefinition on the system through their mobile device. The user can beidentified as an event organizer. The event organizer is givenpermission to define lists of invitees for the event, and manageselection of a location for the event to take place. The system canenable providers to specify limits on events that the provider willhost. The specified limits can include, for example, a number ofparticipants, timing of events, food options available for events, amongother options.

Additionally, providers can also specify that event request must beaccepted by the provider before a booking is confirmed. In otherexamples, providers can specify acceptance criteria, as well asavailability status, so that only providers ready to accept an eventrequest are displayed to the organizer in the user interface. Someproviders can enable an automatic acceptance feature on the system, andin response to event definition by the organizer the systemautomatically books the event location based on a determination that theevent definition meets the automatic acceptance criteria.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example screen capture of a user interface 700presented to a user of the system. The user interface (“UI”) 700 displaystatus information associated with a defined event. For example, UI 700displays an image of the event organizer at 702 “Lisa K.”, and an imageassociated with the defined event at 704. Status information for eachdisplay can also be provided in the UI 700. For example, at 712 theevent status “new event” can be shown, as well as information specifyinginvitees 706A-C at 714, and those invitees who have confirmed attendance708A and 708B can be displayed at 716. Status information can also bedisplayed for a requested or booked location 710 at 718. The display ofthe location at 710 can include the date, time, and other informationassociated with the event (e.g., party of 3, vendor, etc.). In otherexamples, lists of invitees who cannot attend can also be shown in theuser interface. In one example, the UI 700 can include a display thatenables the organizer to access lists of invitees who have declined theinvitation. According to some embodiments, the UI 700 can includeaddition functions. For example, an invitations display 720 can bedisplayed in UI 700. Upon selection, a user can select people from theirnetwork to add to the event, input e-mail addresses, or phone numbersfor text messages of people outside their network or who do notsubscribe to the system.

In some embodiments, the system can be configured to import people fromother social networking sites, e-mail service, phone service, or otheron-line networking tools. Any of these contacts can be selected anddelivered an invitation by the system. In other embodiment, additionalfunctions can be presented in other user interfaces. For example, anevent management UI can include editing functions that permit the userto reselect a location for an event, change the event time, revokeinvitation, add invitations, etc. In other user interfaces a user candetermine availability of a selected location, availability of invitedusers, among other options. In some embodiments, the system isconfigured to accept selection of a primary location and selection ofone or more alternate locations. The system can manage requests to thelocations and further manage notifications to the user regarding theirattempt to book a location.

According to another aspect, the system can include specializedcomponents for executing the functions and operations associated withsocial reservations. In one embodiments, the system includes anetworking subsystem for managing the operations, and executing any ofthe disclosed functions discussed above and, for example, with respectto social reservation/event management.

FIG. 8 illustrates another example screen capture of a user interface(“UI”) 800 presented to a user accessing the networking subsystem. TheUI 800 includes an image 802 associated with a defined event. The UIpresents images of the users invited to the events at 804 (e.g., “lisak.” at 804A, “tony e.” at 804B, “richard w.” at 804C, “laura c.” at804D, “matt g.” at 804E), and if additional users have been invited theUI 800 can be configured to display a icon 804F, 804G, etc. foraccessing displays of additional users. In some embodiments, the usersassociated with an event can be displayed based on status groups“invites” at 804 and “confirmed” at 806 (including, for example, theuser shown at 806A-D). In other embodiments, a location, provider, orrestaurant associated with the event can also be display in UI 800. Forexample, at 808, information for a selected location can be displayed inconjunction with status information associated with the location (e.g.,“booked” or “requested” or “awaiting confirmation,” among otheroptions). In another example, an image of the location can be displayedat 808A along with information specifying some details associated withthe event (e.g., “Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015 2 pm, Party of 5, vendorinformation, among other options).

According to some embodiments, networking subsystem can implement anynumber of user interfaces that enable management and execution ofspecial events. In some examples, the system is configured to enablesurprise events—sending customized invitation to some participantsconfigured to conceal the actual nature of the event from another userreceiving the invitation.

Various embodiments, enable service providers to accept booking forspecial events. In some embodiments, the event can include reservationdining areas a specific location. In other embodiment, service providerscan be engaged to cater special events at locations specified on thesystem. In yet other embodiment, the system can manage transportationfor invitees to an event location (e.g., scheduling UBER pickup and/ordeliveries, request delivery service to transport invitees, among otheroptions). Described above are examples of user interfaces and examplesof functions that can be implemented by a networking subsystem tofacilitate event definition and execution. Other embodiments canimplement additional features to facilitate management, combinefeatures, and/or provide subsets of the features offered.

In some implementations, a user can be associated with membership levelsand event definition functions limited to user having a specificmembership level. In other embodiments, certain providers may specify amembership level as pre-requisite to booking a location for an event. Instill others, some providers can specify that a deposit (e.g., of acertain amount) is required before booking their location for an event.Other embodiments implement additional details and the examples providedshould b read as limiting.

Example Computer System

As discussed above with regard to FIG. 1, various aspects and functionsdescribed herein may be implemented as specialized hardware or softwarecomponents executing in one or more special purpose computer systems.Examples of special purpose computer systems that may be modified toinclude the engines, components, and functionality discussed may includemobile computing devices, such as cellular phones and personal digitalassistants, smart devices, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, etc. Further,various aspects may be located on a single special purpose computersystem (e.g., as an “app”) or may be distributed among a plurality ofspecial purpose computer systems connected to one or more communicationsnetworks.

For example, various aspects, components, and functions (e.g. orderingengine, menu engine, networking subsystem, reserving, scheduling,delivering food options) may be distributed among one or more specialpurpose computer systems configured to provide a service to one or moreclient computers, mobile device, or to perform an overall task as partof a distributed system. Additionally, aspects may be performed on aclient-server or multi-tier system that includes components or enginesdistributed among one or more server systems that perform variousfunctions. Consequently, examples are not limited to executing on anyparticular system or group of systems. Further, aspects and functionsmay be implemented in software, hardware or firmware, or any combinationthereof. Thus, aspects and functions may be implemented within methods,acts, systems, system elements and components using a variety ofhardware and software configurations, and examples are not limited toany particular distributed architecture, network, or communicationprotocol.

Referring to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a block diagram of adistributed special purpose computer system 600, in which variousaspects and functions are practiced (e.g., including a menu engine,display engine, image component, payment component, networkingsubsystem, and ordering engine among other options). As shown, thedistributed computer system 600 includes one more special purposecomputer systems that exchange information. More specifically, thedistributed computer system 600 includes computer systems 602, 604 and606. As shown, the computer systems 602, 604 and 606 are interconnectedby, and may exchange data through, a communication network 608. Forexample, an viewing and/or ordering system and/or management engine canbe implemented on 602, which can communicate with other systems,including systems hosted at a provider site (e.g., 604), and systems atcustomer location or a delivery locations (implemented for examples at606), the systems can operate together to execute the reservation,ordering and delivery functions as discussed herein.

In some embodiments, the network 608 may include any communicationnetwork through which computer systems may exchange data. To exchangedata using the network 608, the computer systems 602, 604 and 606 andthe network 608 may use various methods, protocols and standards,including, among others, TCP/IP, or other communication standard, andmay include secure communication protocols VPN, IPsec, etc. To ensuredata transfer is secure, the computer systems 602, 604 and 606 maytransmit data via the network 608 using a variety of security measuresincluding, for example, TLS, SSL or VPN or other standard. While thedistributed computer system 600 illustrates three networked computersystems, the distributed computer system 600 is not so limited and mayinclude any number of computer systems and computing devices, networkedusing any medium and communication protocol.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the special purpose computer system 602includes a processor 610, a memory 612, a bus 614, an interface 616 anddata storage 618 and further includes any one or more of the enginesdiscussed above to implement at least some of the aspects, functions andprocesses disclosed herein, as either a stand-alone system or part of adistributed system, the processor 610 performs a series of instructionsthat result in manipulated data. The processor 610 may be any type ofprocessor, multiprocessor or controller. The processor 610 is connectedto other system components, including one or more memory devices 612, bythe bus 614.

The memory 612 stores programs and data during operation of the computersystem 602. Thus, the memory 612 may be a relatively high performance,volatile, random access memory such as a dynamic random access memory(DRAM) or static memory (SRAM) or other standard. However, the memory612 may include any device for storing data, such as a disk drive, harddrive, or other non-volatile storage device. Various examples mayorganize the memory 612 into particularized and, in some cases, uniquestructures to perform the functions disclosed herein. These datastructures may be sized and organized to store values for particulardata and types of data, and in particular, may include standardizeformats for organizing and presenting food or beverage options, andstandardize formatting for images associates with each food or beverageoption.

Components of the computer system 602 are coupled by an interconnectionelement such as the bus 614. The bus 614 may include one or morephysical busses, for example, busses between components that areintegrated within the same machine, but may include any communicationcoupling between system elements including specialized or standardcomputing bus technologies such as IDE, SCSI, PCI and InfiniBand orother standard. The bus 614 enables communications, such as data andinstructions, to be exchanged between system components of the computersystem 602.

The computer system 602 also includes one or more interface devices 616such as input devices, output devices and combination input/outputdevices. Interface devices may receive input or provide output. Moreparticularly, output devices may render information for externalpresentation. Input devices may accept information from externalsources. Examples of interface devices include keyboards, mouse devices,trackballs, microphones, touch screens, printing devices, displayscreens, speakers, network interface cards, etc. Interface devices allowthe computer system 602 to exchange information and to communicate withexternal entities, such as users, vendors, and other systems.

The data storage 618 includes a computer readable and writeablenonvolatile, or non-transitory, data storage medium in whichinstructions are stored that define a program or other object that isexecuted by the processor 610. The data storage 618 also may includeinformation that is recorded, on or in, the medium, and that isprocessed by the processor 610 during execution of the program. Morespecifically, the information may be stored in one or more datastructures specifically configured to conserve storage space or increasedata exchange performance.

The instructions stored in the data storage may be persistently storedas encoded signals, and the instructions may cause the processor 610 toperform any of the functions described herein. The medium may be, forexample, optical disk, magnetic disk or flash memory, among otheroptions. In operation, the processor 610 or some other controller causesdata to be read from the nonvolatile recording medium into anothermemory, such as the memory 612, that allows for faster access to theinformation by the processor 610 than does the storage medium includedin the data storage 618. The memory may be located in the data storage618 or in the memory 612, however, the processor 610 manipulates thedata within the memory, and then copies the data to the storage mediumassociated with the data storage 618 after processing is completed. Avariety of components may manage data movement between the storagemedium and other memory elements and examples are not limited toparticular data management components. Further, examples are not limitedto a particular memory system or data storage system.

Although the computer system 602 is shown by way of example as one typeof computer system upon which various aspects and functions may bepracticed, aspects and functions are not limited to being implemented onthe computer system 602 as shown in FIG. 6. Various aspects andfunctions may be practiced on one or more computers having differentarchitectures or components than that shown in FIG. 6 which can bemodified to include the specially purpose engines, components and/orfunctions discussed. For instance, the computer system 602 may includespecially programmed, special-purpose hardware, such as anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) tailored to perform aparticular operation disclosed herein (e.g., ordering, reserving,scheduling, delivering food options, among other examples). Whileanother example may perform the same function using a grid of severalgeneral-purpose computing devices running MAC OS System X with MotorolaPowerPC processors and several specialized computing devices runningproprietary hardware and operating systems.

The computer system 602 may be a computer system including an operatingsystem that manages at least a portion of the hardware elements includedin the computer system 602. Additionally, various aspects and functionsmay be implemented in a non-programmed environment, for example,documents created in HTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in awindow of a browser program, can render aspects of a graphical-userinterface or perform other functions. For example, a managementcomponent can render an interface in a browser to enable viewing and/orselection of dynamically created visual menus.

Further, various examples may be implemented as programmed ornon-programmed elements, or any combination thereof. For example, a webpage may be implemented using HTML while a data object called fromwithin the web page may be written in C++. Thus, the examples are notlimited to a specific programming language and any suitable programminglanguage could be used. Accordingly, the functional components disclosedherein may include a wide variety of elements, e.g., specializedhardware, executable code, data structures or data objects, that areconfigured to perform the functions described herein.

Having thus described several aspects of at least one example, it is tobe appreciated that various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in the art. For instance, examplesdisclosed herein may also be used in other contexts. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of thisdisclosure, and are intended to be within the scope of the examplesdiscussed herein. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawingsare by way of example only.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory; a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor, configured to: search descriptive characteristicsassociated with food items provided by a plurality of food providers toreturn results based on user input criteria, wherein the results arefiltered images of the food items generated responsive to the user inputcriteria; a display engine, executed by the at least one processor,configured to: display at least one user interface, wherein the at leastone user interface is configured to display and accept user selectionthrough a remote user device of at least one of the images of the fooditems provided by the plurality of food providers wherein the images ofthe food items are selectable to trigger generation of a single commonorder spanning multiple food providers; generate an image based menu ina first viewing display screen dynamically responsive to availableimages of the food items meeting display criteria defined on the system:aggregate matching food items from the plurality of food providers andtailoring the respective image based menu in the first viewing displayscreen showing the results of the search to the user based on userdefined preferences stored on the system, the first viewing displayincluding at least images of food items from different providers,wherein tailoring automatically orders the matching food items orautomatically limits the display of matching food items and associatedproviders based on the user defined preferences; display the respectiveimage based menu and the viewing display screen representative of foodofferings available at the plurality of food providers, wherein theimage based menu and the viewing display screen includes images of thefood items representative of the food offerings made available byrespective providers in the first viewing display screen tailored to theuser; wherein the first viewing display includes at least a firstdisplay element of a first food item from a first provider matching theuser input criteria and a second display element of a second food itemfrom a second provider matching the user input criteria, wherein atleast one of the first and second display elements includes an image ofthe respective food item captured by imaging hardware located at therespective provider, and the first and second display elements areselectable to create the single common order, wherein at least the firstprovider and the second provider are geographically distinct providers;and an ordering engine, executed by the at least one processor,configured to: request the food items associated with the plurality ofimages from one or more respective providers shown in the viewingdisplay screen responsive to user section of any selected image tocreate the single common order spanning multiple food providers; buildorder requests for transmission to a plurality of food providersassociated with the user selection, responsive to user selection in theviewing display screen; wherein the ordering engine is furtherconfigured to execute a coordinated delivery of the food items from theplurality of food providers and one or more delivery providers, whereinfor single delivery provider the ordering engine is configured toschedule an order request at a second food provider to synchronize pickup time from a first provider and a first provider location and a pickup time from a second provider at a second provider location fordelivery to a single location; and wherein the menu engine is furtherconfigured to group in the first viewing display screen the images ofthe food items representative of the food offerings made available bythe respective providers based on estimated delivery information, andresponsive to selection of an item in a grouping, filter out a displayof groupings for which coordinated delivery is not possible; imaginghardware at respective providers configured to capture images of food asprepared and to transmit the images of food as prepared to the menuengine; and wherein the menu engine is further configured to receiveimages of food items as prepared, captured by the imaging hardware atrespective providers, and generate the image based menu using at leastone of the images of the food items captured as prepared.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the display engine is further configured to generatethe respective image based menu dynamically responsive to identifyingavailable images of the food items meeting display criteria, wherein thedisplay criteria is defined on the system prior to execution of thesearch.
 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the display engineis further configured to analyze available food items and availableproviders to identify options meeting the display criteria based ondisplay preferences associated with the user retrieved from a userprofile.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an orderingengine, executed by the at least one processor, configured to requestthe food items associated with the plurality of images from one or morerespective providers associated with any selected image.
 5. The systemof claim 1, further comprising a payment component configured to: managepayment verification associated with the user; manage paymentdistribution between at least one of: one or more providers and one ormore delivery entities.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the paymentcomponent is further configured to generate payment informationresponsive to scheduling a plurality of delivery providers and aplurality of food providers, wherein the payment information isdetermined to include gratuity, service fees, and any other charges inadvance of booking a food order.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein thepayment component is further configured to capture payment in advance ofcommitting a delivery order.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface includes a display tool configured to transition the userinterface to a delivery display showing a plurality of candidatedelivery providers generated by the ordering engine.
 9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the system is configured to limit display of candidatedelivery providers based on user defined preferences.
 10. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the system is configured to accept user specificationof a non-vehicular delivery requirement and select candidate deliveryproviders for display based on matching the delivery requirement. 11.The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises imaginghardware configured to automatically capture images of food items atrespective providers during preparation, and generate the image basedmenu using the images of the food items captured during preparation. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein the imaging hardware includes a digitalimaging camera or a light box.
 13. The system of claim 1, wherein thesystem accepts user specified criteria including at least one of:delivery distance, geographic position, provider rating, and is furtherconfigured to tailor the image based menu responsive to the userspecified criteria.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein the system can beaccessed using a computer or mobile device executing an installedapplication, and wherein the system is configured to generate anddisplay user interfaces for enabling the user to enter selection of anyimage and request that the imaged food item be delivered to a userspecified location.
 15. A system comprising: at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory; a menu engine, executed by at leastone processor, configured to: search descriptive characteristicsassociated with food items provided by a plurality of food providers toreturn results based on user input criteria, wherein the results arefiltered images of the food items generated responsive to the user inputcriteria; a display engine, executed by the at least one processor,configured to: display in a first user interface a plurality of imagesof the food items, wherein the first user interface is configured toaccept user selection of at least one of the images of the food itemsprovided by the plurality of food providers to create a single commonfood order spanning multiple providers; aggregate matching food itemsfrom the plurality of food providers and tailor a respective image basedmenu and associated viewing display screen showing the results of thesearch to the user based on user preferences, wherein the image basedmenu and the associated viewing display screen integrates images of thefood items representative of the food offerings made available by therespective providers, wherein the image based menu and the associatedviewing display screen is tailored to the user based on the userpreferences, and wherein at least some of the respective providers arelocated a geographically distinct locations; display the respectiveimage based menu and the associated viewing display screen ofrepresentative of food offerings available at the respective providers;an ordering engine, executed by the at least one processor, configuredto: request the food items associated with the plurality of images fromone or more respective providers associated with any selected imageresponsive to user selection in the viewing display screen; build orderrequests for transmission to a plurality of food providers associatedwith the user selection, responsive to user selection in the viewingdisplay screen used to create the single common food order, wherein themenu engine is further configured to group in the first viewing displayscreen the images of the food items representative of the food offeringsmade available by the respective providers based on estimated deliveryinformation, and responsive to selection of an item in a grouping,filter out a display of groupings for which coordinated delivery is notpossible; wherein the ordering engine is further configured to execute acoordinated delivery of the food items from the plurality of foodproviders and one or more delivery providers, wherein for singledelivery provider the ordering engine is configured to schedule an orderrequest at a second food provider to synchronize pick up from a firstprovider and a first provider location and an estimated travel time to asecond provider location with a pick up time at the second provider andpreparation time for the second provider; and wherein for multipledelivery providers the ordering engine is further configured tosynchronize a first delivery provider pick up from at least the firstprovider and the first provider location with at least a second deliveryprovider pick up from at least a second provider and second providerlocation and coordinate delivery of the food items at a single specifiedlocation; and imaging hardware at respective providers configured tocapture images of food as prepared and to transmit the images of food asprepared to the menu engine; wherein the menu engine is furtherconfigured to receive images of food items as prepared, captured by theimaging hardware at respective providers, and generate the image basedmenu using at least one of the images of the food items captured asprepared.
 16. A system comprising: at least one processor operativelyconnected to a memory; a menu engine, executed by at least oneprocessor, configured to: search descriptive characteristics associatedwith food items or respective providers from a plurality of foodproviders to return results based on user input criteria, wherein theresults are filtered images of the food items responsive to the userinput criteria; a display engine, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to: display at least one user interface, whereinthe at least one user interface is configured to accept user selectionof at least one of the images of the food items, and wherein the imagesare selectable to trigger generation of a single common order spanningmultiple food providers; and generate an image based menu in a firstviewing display screen dynamically responsive to available images of thefood items meeting display criteria defined on the system, whereingenerating includes: aggregating matching food items from the pluralityof food providers and tailoring a respective image based menu shown inthe first viewing display screen showing the results of the search tothe user based on user defined preferences that integrates images of thefood items representative of the food offerings made available by therespective providers in the first viewing display screen of the tailoreddisplay, wherein each of the images show in the first viewing displayscreen is selectable to order the displayed item from the respectiveprovider; and executing display rules to exclude providers from theviewing display screen, wherein the display rules include at leastfilters for limiting the food items and associated providers shown basedon the user defined preferences; and display the image based menu andthe viewing display screen representative of food offerings available atthe respective providers, wherein the image based menu includes imagesof the food items representative of the food offerings made available bythe respective providers; and wherein the image based menu and theviewing display screen includes at least a first display element of afirst food item from a first provider matching the user input criteriaand at least a second display element of a second food item from asecond provider matching the user input criteria, wherein at least thefirst and second provider are geographically distinct food providers,wherein each of the first and second food items shown in the firstviewing display screen is selectable to order the displayed item fromthe respective provider to create an order incorporating selections frommultiple providers into the order; an ordering engine, executed by theat least one processor, configured to: request the food items associatedwith the plurality of images from one or more respective providers shownin the viewing display screen responsive to user section of any selectedimage to create the order spanning multiple food providers; build orderrequests for transmission to a plurality of food providers associatedwith the user selection, responsive to user selection in the viewingdisplay screen; wherein the menu engine is further configured to groupin the first viewing display screen the images of the food itemsrepresentative of the food offerings made available by the respectiveproviders based on estimated delivery information, and responsive toselection of an item in a grouping, filter out a display of groupingsfor which coordinated delivery is not possible; wherein the orderingengine is further configured to execute a coordinated delivery of thefood items from the plurality of food providers and one or more deliveryproviders, wherein for single delivery provider the ordering engine isconfigured to schedule an order request at a second food provider tosynchronize pick up time from a first provider and a first providerlocation and an estimated travel time to a second provider location tosynchronize a pick up time at the second provider and preparation timefor the second provider: and wherein for multiple delivery providers theordering engine is further configured to synchronize a first deliveryprovider pick up from at least the first provider and the first providerlocation with at least a second delivery provider pick up from at leasta second provider and second provider location to synchronize deliverytime of the food items at a user specified location and time; andimaging hardware at respective providers configured to capture images offood as prepared and to transmit the images of food as prepared to themenu engine; wherein the menu engine is further configured to receiveimages of food items as prepared, captured by the imaging hardware atrespective providers, and generate the image based menu using at leastsome of the images of the food items captured as prepared.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16, further comprising an image component configured tomanage a plurality of images of the food items generated by respectiveones of the plurality of food providers.
 18. The system of claim 16,wherein the image component is further configured to communicate withrespective image capture devices at respective food provider locationsto obtain images generated by the respective providers of prepared fooditems available for ordering.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein thedisplay engine is further configured to limit display of any image ofthe food item not meeting an associated display period starting with animage capture time.
 20. The system of claim 16, wherein the menu engineis further configured maintain availability status information onrespective food items and limit display of the respective food itemsresponsive to analyzing availability status.
 21. The system of claim 16,further comprising at least one user interface configured to display atleast one option for receiving user input for vendor, food type, andwherein the menu engine is further configured to return results based ona received vendor, food type, across a plurality of providers.
 22. Thesystem of claim 16, further comprising a rating engine, executed by theat least one processor, configured to accept user feedback associatedwith food items or the provider.
 23. The system of claim 16, furthercomprising a network engine configured to generate a link between atleast two users having in common one or more of the following: providingrating or feedback, connected socially on interface or through othersocial networking engines, having same user status, and user providingfeedback.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein the network engine isconfigured to generate a network of associated users responsive todetermining a degree of separation between the at least two users,wherein the degree of separation is provided to the system.
 25. Thesystem of claim 22, further comprising a profile engine, executed by theat least one processor, configured to generate a user profile responsiveto analyzing vendor, menu item or user feedback submitted to the system.